September 13, 2019

Renovating in a click – Turnkey Retrofit kicks off

Empowering homeowners and boards of co-owners with guidance, follow-up and digital tools for a smoother renovation journey

Achieving the full market potential of renovation calls for a paradigm shift, with a more service-oriented supply-side and a deeper awareness on the demand-side, where market offers go beyond energy performance to include a wider range of home improvement and support services. The TURNKEY RETROFIT service is a homeowner-centric renovation journey which will transform the complex and fragmented renovation process into a simple, straightforward and attractive process, upskilling the industry and enhancing cross-sector engagement, as well as mobilising private investment.

Europe is facing the now more than pressing challenge to triple the current renovation rate in order to meet its climate and energy goals, mitigate climate change and get on track to limit global temperature increase to 1,5°C as agreed in the Paris Agreement in 2015. Inadequate and poor housing causing high energy bills, health issues and a lower quality of life, tackling this challenge would not only be beneficial for the climate, but first and foremost for the people living, working and using these buildings.

Renovating the existing building stock represents an exceptional investment opportunity,with the capacity to boost the economy and generate local jobs. The energy renovation market plays an important role in the economy, amounting to more than €100 billion and generating almost 1 million jobs in Europe and its potential is far greater.

For homeowners and building managers, the renovation process can seem complicated, shaped by the ambiguity of the interventions to implement, a lack of knowledge on the existing solutions as well as a lack of services to coordinate all required market actors involved in the renovation process. This often results in lengthy, time-consuming and disruptive renovation processes. The renovation rate continues to linger around 1% and private investments remain limited.

Turnkey Retrofit will build upon the promising experiences of integrated renovation services emerging in Europe to develop and improve an economically-viable business model, ultimately running without the need for public subsidies. A burden-free experience for the customer (homeowners or board of co-owners), this holistic service allows to manage and upgrade their homes in a simpler and more cost-effective way, with a turnkey solution for all steps of the process, from the initial technical and behavioural diagnosis, the contacts with providers and installers to the structuring and provision of financial incentives, onsite coordination of works and quality assurance as well as post-assessment of the works.

TURNKEY RETROFIT will match end-users with the right building professionals and financial options, while assembling the local capacity for deep energy renovations. The service will be accessible in 2020 through a user-friendly digital platform, Solutions4Renovation, and will address drivers of building renovation that go beyond a desire to reduce energy bills and increase asset value, such as home improvement, increased comfort, enhanced health & quality of life (additional added-value services for e.g. accessibility, security, etc.).

About TURNKEY RETROFIT

TURNKEY RETROFIT is designed as a service-oriented model where the homeowner is offered tailormade solutions based on his/her specific preferences, covering energy improvements for the building envelope, energy equipment (heating, cooling, ventilation), hot water systems, renewable energies when relevant (e.g. photovoltaic, solar thermal, etc.) and integrated packages covering several of the above in a holistic way. The project covers both detached and semi-detached single-family and multi-family residential housing. The TURNKEY RETROFIT service will be developed in particular through the integration and enrichment of 2 existing French services Mon carnet (formerly Izigloo) and Operene targeted at single-family and multi-family housing renovation, respectively. 9 partners from France, Spain, Ireland and Belgium (CSTB, Tecnalia, ANERR, IGBC, NUI Galway, BPIE, Operene, EP and R2M) are joining forces to develop the concept in 3 EU countries: France, Ireland and Spain. Additional activities will include business modelling, creating a community of market actors, involving national building councils, government representatives, financial institutions, energy agencies, local authorities, manufacturers, construction products, building professionals installers, architects, energy operating companies as well as building owners associations and more.